Thriving result of the society’s genesis

From Newsletter 100 (summer 2001):
Three decades after the Glastonbury Conservation Society was founded to save it, the 16th-century Crown Hotel, in the heart of the Market Place, not only survives but is thriving. For the past four years it has been the Glastonbury Backpackers: dormitories for young travellers for as little as £10 a night — an idea borrowed from Australia, and now a network across Britain. The Crown even has the only sushi restaurant this side of Bath, with delivery service (83 3353, and sushi does not mean raw fish, it simply means “with rice”).
After all that, it’s only appropriate that we sign up Ben Butterell, proprietor, as a member of the Conservation Society. That’s Ben waving his freshly completed green form.

Update, 2005:The above caption appeared in Newsletter 100, August 2001. Since then, The Backpackers has painted itself blue, and its overnight fees have gone up a bit (dorms start at £12). The sushi restaurant proved too exotic for deepest Somerset; it’s now the Pax Lunch sandwich bar and internet café, and you can download the menu: www.glastonburybackpackers.co.uk